LEC
What is Research for Designers
Making, theorizing, and evidence in design research
Lecture Slides
What is Research for Designers
LAAR 64150 · Design Research
Part I

What is research

Part II

Making as a method

Part III

Theorizing as a method

Part IV

Where to find information

Part V

Graphic references

What is Research

  • Research is the pursuit of new knowledge through the process of discovery. Purdue University
  • Two grammars of the word: Open English Wordnet
    • Noun: a search for knowledge
    • Verb: to find out systematically
  • Research is the systematic and intentional process of asking questions, gathering evidence, interpreting data, and generating knowledge. ChatGPT

How to do research?

  • What do you want to study? Be specific: what about pumpkins?
  • Why, and why now? Climate change, social injustice, democracy?
  • How will you study it? Documents, theory, drawing, mapping?
  • What is your outcome?

What is a Method

  • The traditional split:
    • Quantitative — numbers and statistics.
    • Qualitative — words, images, observation, interviews.
  • Method is how you study something. Two methods for designers:
    • Making
    • Theorizing
  • Combine methods and you have a new method.
Part I

What is research

Part II

Making as a method

Part III

Theorizing as a method

Part IV

Where to find information

Part V

Graphic references

Collage of measures, instruments and scales
Collage of a landscape instrument on a horizon
1960s cigarette advertising posters arranged as a grid
Photographic panorama of the Highline before conversion
Photographic study of the US Steel South Works site
Measured drawing of a 1600s Dutch windmill, blueprint style
Interpretive model of a 1600s Dutch windmill, photographed
Cardboard site model with cut landform and circulation
Corrugated cardboard model of a shoreline edge
Historical photograph of the Mississippi River Basin Model
Aerial view of the Mississippi River Basin Model
Lawrence Halprin motation score, vertical notation
Lawrence Halprin score of movement through a landscape
Layered suitability analysis drawing from Design with Nature
Map of water level during intense flooding
Catalog of Dutch dike typologies drawn in section
Typological study of BQE corridor conditions
Section drawing of oyster reef infrastructure
Scientific drawing of plant root systems below grade
Root system architecture drawing, student work
Root system architecture drawing, second plate
Root system study plate, sectional
Root system study plate, comparative
Large composite drawing of root architecture across a site

Making as a Method

  • Drawing makes you respond, and ask more questions.
  • Use verbs:
    • Diagram root systems to see how they grow.
    • Combine typologies to make new public spaces.
    • Analyze historical trade images of China and the West.
  • Post-rationalization is allowed.
  • It should be fun.
Part I

What is research

Part II

Making as a method

Part III

Theorizing as a method

Part IV

Where to find information

Part V

Graphic references

Theorizing as a Method

  • What is theory?
    • A system of ideas intended to explain something. Oxford Dictionary
  • Why do we need theory?
    • Theories give you frameworks and vocabularies to study with.
  • Theory bridges, mediates and reconciles thought and action. Beth Meyer
Part I

What is research

Part II

Making as a method

Part III

Theorizing as a method

Part IV

Where to find information

Part V

Graphic references

Where to Find Information — Topography and Geography

Where to Find Information — Historical Maps

Where to Find Information — Images

Where to Find Information — Other

  • Patents — patents.google.com
  • Google Scholar
  • ResearchGate
  • The library — JSTOR, Project MUSE
Part I

What is research

Part II

Making as a method

Part III

Theorizing as a method

Part IV

Where to find information

Part V

Graphic references

Student drawing: circular composite analysis of a contested territory
Analytical drawing overlaying settlement and terrain
Stitching the Borderlands — regional analysis plate
Topographic overlay study in warm tones
Hydrological analysis drawing in pale green
Coastal composite plate with inset studies
Circular diagram of seasonal migration and habitat
Aerial-photo composite with annotation
Timeline diagram of trade and species movement across an ocean
Historical composite map of a river delta with vignettes
Machined Landscapes, Johannesburg — layered analytical plate
Mining landscape diagram in magenta and grey
Aerial photograph annotated with routes and numbered sites
Regional map of settlement density over terrain and water
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